Rail anchor



March 16, 1948. I 'w. H. WOODINGS ETAL 2,438,035

RAIL ANCHOR Filed March 1, 1946 WITNESSES: I I INVE TORS WuL/ ATTORNEYS.

Patented Mar. 16, I948 STATES PATENT OFFICE RAIL ANCHOR of Pennsylvania Application March 1, 1946, Serial No. 651,158

1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to rail anchors, and more particularly to one-piece anchors that clamp onto rail bases.

It is among the objects of this invention to provide a one-piece resilient rail anchor which will tightly grip rail bases of different widths, which prevents set when applied to over-sized rail bases, which can easily be applied to rails, which will not be sprung open by hammering against the underlying ballast, and which is not difiicult to make.

In accordance with this invention the anchor, which is adapted to extend under a rail base, has at its opposite ends rail-gripping jaws that are connected beneath the rail by a resilient downwardly bowed portion of the anchor. These jaws are adapted to receive the opposite sides of the rail base and to tightly grip it. In applying th anchor to a rail, one of the jaws is slipped over one side of the rail base and then the anchor is turned about that end in order to force the jaw at the other end upwardly over the other side of the base. For this purpose the last-men tioned jaw is provided with an upwardly and outwardly projecting lug having an inner cam surface which is adapted to slide upwardly across the adjacent lower corner of the rail base in order to spread the anchor open far enough to permit the jaw to snap over the base. The two Jaws are formed for engaging only the upper corners of the rail base and the bottom of the base at two points spaced inwardly from the sides of the base. The inn-er surface of each jaw between its two rail-engaging points is spaced from the rail base. Therefore, the anchor has only four points of contact with the rail, and over-sized bases can project into the jaws farther than normal bases without spreading the anchor sufiiciently to cause set. Preferably, the downwardly bowed central portion of the anchor has a shape which keeps it from spreading open if it pounds on the track ballast, and its upper ends are connected to the lower ends of the jaws by reverse bends or upwardly bowed portions of the anchor.

The preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which Fig. 1 shows our anchor clamped on a rail base; and Fig. 2 is a cross section of an anchor taken on the line IIII of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings, the anchor is made from a single metal bar that is bent into the proper shape, such as that shown in Fig. 1. Preferably, the bar is rectangular in cross section, but a round or square bar may be used if desired. The opposite ends of the bar are bent inwardly upon themselves to form a pair of jaws l and 2 for tightly gripping the opposite edges of the base of a rail 3. Below the rail the central portion of the anchor that connects the jaws is bent downwardly to form a large resilient loop 4 that increases the flexibility of the anchor. This loop is circular and forms the larger part of a circle so that the. distance between its upper ends is less than the diameter of the circle.

The anchor is provided with reverse bends 6 connecting loop 4 with the two jaws. The tops of upwardly bowed portions 6, which form the inner ends of the jaws beneath the rail, engage the bottom of the rail at points spaced inwardly some distance from the sides of the rail base. The jaws inner surfaces extending from these bottom contact points around to the upper corners of the rail base are spaced from the base to provide considerable clearance, but the jaws engage those upper corners across which they extend tangentially. That is, the upper areas of the inner surfaces of the jaws are substantially flat and extend straight across the upper corners of the base at a greater inclination than the upper surface of the rail base, whereby those flat areas above the base are spaced from the,

top of the base.

The upper part of anchor jaw l projects inwardly over the rail base far enough to permit the jaw to be hooked over the base when the anchor is first applied to the rail, at which time the other jaw 2, that has a shorter upper part, is located below the opposite side of the rail. To aid in spreading the anchor open far enough to allow jaw 2 to snap up over the rail base, the upper end of the jaw is provided with an upwardly and outwardly projecting extension or lug I, and this lug has an inner inclined surface 8 which engages the adjacent lower corner of the base and forces loop 4 to open when the anchor is swung upwardly by means of a suitable tool. The inner lower corner of the lug is compelled to slide up across the adjoining side of the rail base until it snaps inwardly over the top. The base then projects into jaw 2 which engages the upper corner of the base tangentially as shown in the drawing.

It will be seen that this anchor has only four points of contact with the rail, and that the rail is tightly gripped by the anchor jaws at those points. The jaws are spaced from the sides and lower corners of the rail base to provide room for over-size bases so that they will not utes, we have explained the principle and con-- struction of our invention and have illustrated and described what we now consider to represent its best embodiment. However, we desire to have it understood that, within the scope of the appended claim, the invention may be practiced Y otherwise than as specifically illustrated and described.

We claim:

A one-piece rail anchor adapted to extend under a rail base and having at its opposite ends rail-gripping jaws connected beneath the rail by a resilient downwardly bowed portion, said jaws being adapted to receive the opposite sides of the rail base after the jaws have been sprung away from each other far enough to permit the base to enter them, said bowed portion being in the shape of more than half of a circle with its upper ends connected to the adjacent inner ends of the jaws by reverse bends adapted to press against the bottom of the rail base at points spaced inwardly from the sides of the base, and said jaws being formed for engaging tangentially the upper corners of the rail base, the inner surfaces of the jaws between their rail cornerengaging areas and their rail bottom-engaging areas being spaced from the rail, the surfaces of said jaws engageable with said rail corners being substantiall flat and extending above the upper surface of the rail base, one of the jaws being formed to overlie the top of the rail base for a greater distance than the other jaw, and said other jaw having at its upper end an upwardly and outwardly projecting lug provided with an inner cam surface adapted to slide upwardly across the adjacent lower corner of the rail base and spring the jaws away from each other while the anchor is being applied to the rail.

WILBERT H. WOODINGS. EDMUND A. SKOWRON.

RICHARD J. MCCOMB.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,361,962 Cairncross Dec. 14, 1920 1,739,004 Konold Dec. 10, 1929 1,756,071 Shepherd Apr. 29, 1930 2,161,925 Johnson June 13, 1939 2,413,470 Skowron et a1 Dec. 31, 1946 

